President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan Sunday, his first as US commander-in-chief, to assess his surge of 30,000 troops, designed to end the bloody eight-year war on the Taliban.

President Barack Obama has thanked US troops for their "huge sacrifices" and pledged to "dismantle al Qaeda" while on a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

A priest leads US Marines in prayer during Palm Sunday mass

The trip, shrouded in secrecy until his arrival amid security concerns, opened with talks with President Hamid Karzai at his Kabul palace, which Obama used to press for a stepped-up fight against corruption and the drugs trade."The American people are encouraged by the progress that has been made," Obama told Karzai after the one-on-one meeting, which included an invitation for the Afghan leader to visit Washington on May 12.But Obama also pressed Karzai, with whom he has had a testy relationship, to "continue to make progress" on the civilian front, including on good governance, the fight against corruption and the rule of law.He also said he had made the dramatic through-the-night flight to Afghanistan to thank US troops for their "incredible efforts" and their "tremendous sacrifices" a long way from home.Karzai thanked American taxpayers for helping "the rebuilding and reestablishing" of Afghanistan civilian institutions and government.Obama landed in Afghanistan amid a spike in deaths of foreign troops in the escalating war, and as the first big offensive of his new strategy unfolds in Helmand province, with Taliban strongholds in Kandahar among future targets.His secret journey began when he left his Camp David retreat outside Washington and boarded Air Force One at Andrews air force base for a non-stop flight to the Bagram military base outside Kabul.After touching down after dusk, Obama flew by helicopter to the palace with key aides, including Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff and political advisor David Axelrod, said an AFP photographer traveling with the president's party.The visit, expected to last only a few hours in the unstable Afghan capital, was also scheduled to include in-person briefings for Obama by war commander General Stanley McChrystal and US ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry.Obama and Karzai met almost immediately after he touched down, and emerged from the palace on a red carpet for a welcoming ceremony, including an Afghan guard of honor and the US and Afghan national anthems.Private, and likely candid talks between the two leaders were followed by an expanded session with the Afghan cabinet and a shared meal.Obama landed in Afghanistan emboldened by the best week of his presidency, after passing a historic health care reform law and concluding a major nuclear arms control treaty with Russia.But the Afghan war, and his fateful decision to surge more troops into a conflict launched after the September 11 attacks in 2001, still holds the capacity to humble his presidency.Obama announced in December that he was pouring 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, in a gamble he said was designed to "seize the initiative" to end the unpopular war and start a US pullout in July 2011.Since then, US public opinion has stabilized slightly, despite increasing fighting, with a CNN/Opinion Research poll last week finding opposition to the war had dropped below the 50-percent mark for the first time in nearly a year.Fifty-five percent of Americans now approve of how Obama is handling Afghanistan, up from 42 percent late last year when the president agonized for months over his strategy, before announcing the surge in December.The United States and NATO have more than 121,000 troops in Afghanistan, set to rise to 150,000 by August as part of the new plan to reverse the Taliban momentum, particularly in the south, and hasten an end to the war.Obama's last visit to Afghanistan came when he was a senator and Democratic presidential nominee in 2008 -- but since then he has been involved in a long-distance battle of wills with Karzai, who won re-election last year.US national security advisor James Jones said on Air Force One that Obama would try to make Karzai understand "that in his second term, there are certain things that have been not paid attention to, almost since Day One."That is things like... a merit-based system for appointment of key government officials, battling corruption, taking the fight to the narco-traffickers, which fuels, provides a lot of the economic engine for the insurgents."The fast-track war strategy envisages that American troops would start coming home in July 2011, though a full withdrawal could take several years.Most of the 10,000 extra troops that have arrived so far have been sent to the volatile south, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban insurgency.More than 105 foreign troops have been killed this year, more than double the number who died in the first two months of 2009.

Prince Charles makes surprise Afghan visit

Thursday, March 25 04:27 pm Lynne O'Donnell

Prince Charles flew out of Afghanistan Thursday after a surprise visit to meet soldiers engaged in some of the toughest fighting and help foster regeneration of the war-scarred nation. Charles is the most senior member of the royal family to visit Afghan.His two-day whistle-stop tour took in the troubled south, where he met with British troops fighting in the biggest military operation since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 triggered a vicious insurgency now in its ninth year.The heir to the British throne told staff at the British embassy in Kabul that it was his fourth attempt to visit Afghanistan."I tried rather hard last year but the elections rather intervened," he said, referring to a presidential election last August that was mired in fraud. "It is a great joy to have been able to get here."He travelled around the country under tight security and wore body armour over his army uniform. In Kabul, he wore a heavy blue flak jacket over his suit while moving around the city in an armed convoy.There was a media blackout until he left Afghanistan to ensure his safety.His younger son, Prince Harry, had to leave Afghanistan just 10 weeks into service on the frontline in February 2008 after the British media reported that he was in the country.Charles's sister, Princess Anne, also visited British troops in the south early this month.Britain has around 4,000 troops fighting in Operation Mushtarak -- "together" in Dari and Pashto -- which aims to clear insurgents and drug trafficking cartels out of key areas of Helmand province that have been under their control for more than two years.The operation involves 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops in a key test of counter-insurgency tactics aimed at neutralising Taliban control in Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar province so that Afghan authority can be re-established.There are currently more than 120,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan under US and NATO control.Under the new strategy drawn up by US General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the combined international force, the number will peak at 150,000 by August, before a planned drawdown from mid-2011.Much of Britain's effort has been concentrated in Sangin, a poppy-rich district in the central Helmand River valley, considered one of the toughest theatres for the British effort in Afghanistan.Sangin is north of Nad Ali and Marjah where Mushtarak is under way.Homemade bombs known as improvised explosive devises -- the Taliban weapon of choice -- have been responsible for many of the 276 British troop deaths in the country, where about 10,000 British soldiers are deployed.During his visit, Charles met McChrystal for a briefing on the overall picture of the war in Afghanistan.He also met British and Commonwealth troops serving in Kabul, as well as leaders in fields including environmental conservation, media, civic developments, architectural and archaeological heritage preservation.On Thursday he travelled to Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, where he met Governor Gulab Mangal as well as military and civilian officials on Britain's provincial reconstruction team, involved in building up Afghanistan's justice, security and agriculture through poppy-replacement schemes.In Kabul on Wednesday, Charles visited the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, of which he is co-patron with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.The foundation aims to protect and regenerate traditional Afghan arts and crafts with woodwork, pottering and jewellery-making workshops as well as programmes to rejuvenate Kabul's old city centre.Charles, 61, is the most senior member of the royal family to visit Afghanistan and the only one in living memory to visit Kabul.He flew by Chinook helicopter Thursday over a patchwork of desert and poppy fields to Patrol Base Pimon, in Nad Ali, the central Helmand River valley, where 140 British soldiers are holding the frontline against an escalated Taliban threat.